


could i have someone to relate to

by Valery_Snowflakes



Series: my family loves you [2]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: M/M, adrian really likes phil and they get along nicely, just give it a shot it'll be worth it, please don't give me shit for it i'm not trying to be mean to him, yes this fic includes adrian howell, younger bros being bros
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-10
Updated: 2017-10-10
Packaged: 2019-01-15 20:42:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12328509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valery_Snowflakes/pseuds/Valery_Snowflakes
Summary: It’s nice, he thinks, having someone like Phil, who he can talk to so easily and get along with so nicely. Phil’s nice, he offers good advice and isn’t afraid of calling him up on his bullshit.





	could i have someone to relate to

**Author's Note:**

> First of all: yes, this fic revolves around Adrian Howell, Dan's younger brother. Please don't give me shit for it, after the first fic I had an idea of Adrian and Phil hanging out as younger brothers and getting along, so naturally I had to write it down. I am in no way trying to invade his privacy, and I do not claim to know how he is or what his relationships with his relatives and/or friends are like. Please, this is merely a work of fiction, and I would kindly appreciate if we could all enjoy this without adding it to the mix of the bad things that have happened within the history of the Phandom.  
> Without further ado, please enjoy.
> 
> Title's from will.i.am — The Travelling Song.

Phil hears some shuffling in the living room, but he knows it isn’t Dan because his boyfriend is in the shower and Adrian, the only other person in the house is busy in his bedroom trying to cool down from the argument they both had earlier.

  The thought that someone may be trying to sneak in scares him to death, what if it’s a burglar? Or a really crazy fan that had followed them?

  He hesitates for a brief moment, but quickly picks up his wallet from where it was lying in the kitchen island (his mother always used to tell him to give people that threatened you what they wanted and then leave, a lost wallet wasn’t worth a human life) and a glass vase from the top-right cupboard and tries to walk as quietly as possible to the front door.

  There, standing in a red flannel and black jeans is not a burglar but the very same Adrian Howell that was refused a chance to go to the cinema with his friends a few hours ago.

  He looks like a deer caught in headlights, one hand in one of Mrs. Howell’s purses and the other holding his copy of the house key.

  Phil raises one brow, leaves the vase in the floor next to him.

“What are you doing?” he asks, tentatively, trying not to freak out.

  Adrian swallows.

“Um… I was going to grab a snack.” He lies, not averting Phil’s gaze.

“From your mum’s purse?” Phil asks again, trying to hold back a smile.

“Uh, yeah. She… has sweets sometimes here.” Adrian retreats his hand from the black Gucci bag Dan had gifted her some years ago for Christmas and Phil catches some banknotes from in between the boy's fingers before he pushes his hand in one of his jean pockets.

“So you weren’t taking money from your mother’s purse to go to the cinema or anything?” Phil laughs, reaching for his wallet and fishing some cash out. “Okay, buddy, how much have you got there? Twenty quid? I’ll give you fifty, just put that back in.”

  Adrian blinks, opens and closes his mouth several times like a fish out of water. Phil pulls out some banknotes from his wallet and thrusts them towards the brunette, who silently reaches for them and puts his mother’s money back where it came from.

“Give me your phone,” Phil says, so Adrian does. The raven haired man does something with it and then hands it back, text app opened with a new chat on it.

“That’s my number,” he says, eloquently. “I want you to text me constantly and tell me what you’re doing. What cinema, what movie, if you go shopping or to grab some food I would appreciate restaurant and street’s name. If you need anything just ring. And if you’re about to do something illegal make sure there are no cops nearby, I don’t care if you think you can fool them: you can’t. You either wait until they leave or move somewhere else, your brother would kill me if something were to happen to you.”

 “Why are you doing this?” Adrian asks, dumbfounded. “I mean, it’s not like I don’t appreciate it but… my parents can’t come with me, Dan said either of you coming with me wouldn’t be good if someone were to recognise me, and I’m not allowed to leave house on my own yet.”

  Phil smiles.

“You were going to leave on your own a few minutes ago,” he remarks, casually. “It’s always better if someone has your back, in case anything happens, but I hope nothing will.”

  Adrian smiles.

“Thanks, Phil,” he says, wholeheartedly. Then he remembers Dan and the big argument of that morning. “What are you going to tell my brother?”

“Nothing, he doesn’t have to know. We could cause a scene, if you want, but that would be too risky. Just go and have fun, don’t go anywhere that looks remotely suspicious and text me every few hours so I know you haven’t died yet, we’ll be here.”

  Adrian smiles, hugs Phil briefly and then exits the house as quietly as he can.

 

 _‘we’re on mcdonalds btw’_ he texts Phil a few hours later, it’s almost four in the afternoon and he knows he should probably go back home soon.

  Adrian takes one fry from his Happy Meal box and quickly sends Phil his location using a link from Google Maps, it'd be easier with WhatsApp, he thinks, but Phil doesn't have the app so they'll have to settle with this. There are two of his best friends right next to him, and Amelie elbows him in the ribs.

“Stop texting your girlfriend and eat, goddammit. I’ve got a train to catch and we still haven’t gone to the dog park,” she says, smiling. Adrian pushes his phone back into one of his pockets and takes a bite out of his hamburger.

“Sorry,” he says in between mouthfuls of bread and meat. “I was texting my brother’s boyfriend, I have to keep him updated on what we’re doing.”

  She smiles, shrugs and proceeds to steal a bunch of his fries.

“I haven’t seen you brother in ages,” Miles chimes in from across the table, wiping some ketchup from his cheek with his jumper’s sleeve. “He’s got a boyfriend now, right? That’s so cool, I guess they’re doing fine?”

  Adrian nods.

“Yeah, I think they’re planning on writing a book or something, I wasn’t paying attention.”

  Someone nods, Miles smiles and Amelie declares once again that she has got roughly and hour to catch a train back to London before everyone is tossing aside their empty food trays.

  Adrian looks at his Happy Meal toy, it’s a Corgi made from fabric and stuffed with cotton. It looks decent, so he takes it with him.

 

 _‘Where are you?_ **’** comes the text, and he has to stop and laugh because, wow, timing.

 _‘abt five minutes from the house, y?’_ he texts back.

 _‘I gotta go get more popcorn because I lost a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. I’m going to Tesco, are you near?’_ followed by some question mark emojis.

  Adrian laughs, sends his location. He’s literally in front of the store.

 _‘Oh, cool.’_ Phil texts back.

 _‘i’ll meet u in the parking lot, right before the entrance’_ Adrian sends.

_‘Okay, I’ll be there soon.’_

 

  Eight minutes later Phil comes in, glasses askew on the bridge of his nose and hair slightly tousled.

“Tricking your brother into thinking you were willing to come with me and leaving the house without him seeing you was painfully hard,” he offers as an excuse for being late, Adrian laughs.

“Thanks for being my cover, dude,” he says, pulling out thirty quid from his pocket. “I had fun.”

  Phil smiles, takes the banknotes and puts them back on his wallet.

“No problem, mate. I’m honestly surprised you hadn’t sneaked out sooner, I actually thought someone was trying to sneak in rather than to sneak out.”

  The boy laughs, they’re walking through the aisles and Phil’s grabbing various snacks from the shelves.

“We should’ve taken a shopping cart,” Adrian remarks incredibly late, taking some of the stuff off of Phil’s arms.

“We should.”

  He smiles and it’s really pretty to see.

 

  When they come back Dan’s on the living room, anxiously pacing from one place to another.

“I’m sorry about what I said in the morning.” Adrian offers as an apology, Phil had talked to him in Tesco about the whole scene they'd caused that morning, he hadn't asked for Adrian to apologize but he'd still had wanted to do so. “I was really an ass, you may not be our father but you do have some kind of authority over me.”

“I’m sorry for what I said in the morning, too.” Dan says, smiling carefully, he eyes Phil suspiciously but quickly retreats his gaze back to Adrian. “You’re not ten anymore, I should’ve left you go with your friends to the movies.”

  Phil smiles, stands there kind of awkwardly while both Howell’s share a weird sibling hug.

“Okay, who wants to play Mario Kart?” he asks, marching towards the kitchen with all of their shopping bags in one hand. “Dan, you set up the Wii, I’ll make the snacks and Adrian can just…”

“I’ll help you make the snacks,” Adrian offers, despite feeling extremely tired from a whole day of running around with his friends in one of the nearest shopping centres.

“Okay, whatever,” Dan says, already walking towards the TV. “Have fun in the kitchen.”

  Adrian trails silently behind Phil and starts helping him unpack the food before speaking.

“Thank you,” he says again, opening a package of biscuits. “I saw some friends that live really far away today, and I had such a good time. I think I wouldn’t have been able to do it without someone fooling my brother into thinking I was still mad in my room.”

  Phil laughs, waves a hand dismissively.

“Whenever you need someone to cover you, you know I’m here. I understand, believe me, I also had to sneak out from my home a couple of times. But my parents were almost always there, and my brother never left me alone for more than an hour, so I think I got quite good at this run and go lifestyle.”

  Adrian laughs, reaches into his pocket to pull out the corgi plushie and settles it in the kitchen island, between the microwave popcorn and a bag of Maltesers they had bought just to annoy the crap outta Dan.

“I think I’ll just text you from now on with any younger brother struggles I have,” he says jokingly, but Phil beams and it’s honestly so cute.

“Yes! You can text me whenever, if you want to vent about something at school or anything, I’m all ears. You can call me even if you just need someone to help you decide what you want for dinner, I wouldn’t mind.”

  He looks genuinely happy and Adrian finds himself nodding.

“For you,” he says, giving the dog plushie a little push. Phil notices it and immediately cradles in like it’s worth a million.

“Thank you,” he says, and it sounds so sincere. “I’ll put it next to Lion when I get back home.”

“I’ll have to demand pictures for proof.” Adrian smiles and Phil nods once again.

“Of course.”

  They make it back to the living room in silence. Dan has already set up the Wii and there are three controllers on the coffee table. Carefully, Phil lays down all of the sweets they’ve bought, and Adrian places three glasses of Ribena next to the food.

  Dan winces when he notices the Maltesers.

“Whose idea was it?” he asks, reaching to grab a handful. Phil smiles and points at Adrian with his index finger, so Adrian points back at him.

  The brunette rolls his eyes.

“Are you teaming up against me now?” he asks, reaching for more chocolate. “Because I don’t know what I’ll do if two of the people who I care most about in life start trying to make me suffer.”

  Phil presses a kiss to Dan’s temple and laughs, Adrian rolls his eyes.

“Maybe we are, looser. So what?”

  Dan makes a pained face, but it’s fake because he’s smiling widely.

 

 _‘phil’s a keeper’_ he texts Dan a few days later, he’s doing English homework and Phil has already given him all the answers to the pop quiz.

 _‘hands off, he’s mine’_ comes Dan's quick response, followed by a lot of cry laugh emojis.

_‘chill, I want u to take care of him, I don’t wanna keep him’_

  There’s a little sparkly heart, and then.

_‘I know, I love him.’  
‘he says hi btw’_

_‘tell him to send me the pictures he owes me’_ Adrian replies.

  There comes a _‘???’_ response next and then he’s received messages from another chat.

  They’re all pictures of Lion and Cloudy, how he’s decided to name the corgi plushie because Phil insisted in letting Adrian name him, both of them in various locations looking like they’re hanging out.

 _‘I was having a photoshoot’_ Phil says, and adds a lion and a dog emoji.

_‘they look nice, might as well put them as a screensaver’_

_‘I want pics if you do.’_

  Adrian downloads the pictures into his laptop and sets one as his Facebook cover picture, he sends Phil an inbox from the app.

 _‘be happy’_ he says, adding a screenshot of his profile.

  Phil sends him back a picture, it’s him and Dan forming a heart with both of their hands. In the middle there’s a text.

_‘Already are.’_

  Adrian sends a smiling emoji followed by a puking one and closes the chat.

 

  He finds himself texting Phil more often from then on.

  Sometimes it’s about school, sometimes it’s just a meme he’s downloaded from Facebook. Sometimes he asks for fashion advice, but Phil really doesn’t know much about it so they end up browsing Google for hours and trying to come up with a solution.

  There are times when life isn’t that easy, too. He calls Phil once at midnight, it’s finals week and he’s crying, but Phil is there and he’s nice and soothing even though he’s hours away. The man stays with him until early hours of the morning, he’s there on his headphones when he takes Collin out for a midnight walk and he’s there at two am in a pixelated Skype screen telling him to drink an entire glass of hot milk and try to sleep as much as he can. He calls Phil after a particularly strong argument with Amelie, too, and Phil listens carefully. 

  It’s nice, he thinks, having someone like Phil, who he can talk to so easily and get along with so nicely. Don’t get him wrong, he confides in Dan and his parents as much as he does in Phil, but there’s something about not being forced to talk to Phil that makes him eager to talk to the man even more. Phil’s nice, he offers good advice and isn’t afraid of calling him up on his bullshit. He's older, so he can give him different opinions and better advice than most of his friends; he's smart, too, and he isn't afraid to speak his mind. He loves animals, has the weirdest encounters with the weirdest people and he always appears to be walking in between two worlds, Adrian can tell why Dan loves him.

  He talks to Phil about things he wouldn’t feel comfortable telling his parents — or Dan, for that matter — but they also talk about nothing and everything.

  He calls Phil on Skype one Sunday evening, he’s tired for some reason, despite not having done anything at all, and he feels genuinely upset over something he doesn’t want to remember.

  All of sudden Dan’s face appears, brown hazel eyes shining and soft curls damp enough he can see the water from his laptop screen.

“Adrian, how are you?” he asks, there’s a slightly darker tone to his eyelids and there’s a pink tint to his lips.

“Upset over something I can’t remember,” Adrian answers truthfully, because there’s no point in trying to repress his feelings.

  Dan hums, his smile falters.

“I missed your voice,” Adrian tells wholeheartedly. There’s a pause. “Where’s Phil?”

  His brother smiles.

“On the other room, do you want me to go get him?” There’s a nod, Dan takes Phil’s phone with him to the living room and plops down on the couch.

“Hi!” Phil says, he’s wearing his glasses like he always does when people aren’t watching him. “You look down, what’s wrong?”

  Dan shuffles to get out of the frame but Adrian raises a hand, makes a pulling down motion from where he is sat on his bed so Phil tugs on Dan’s sleeve to sit him back down.

“I had a rough week, I guess.” He isn’t sure how to start, but there are two pairs of worried eyes looking at him through a phone screen so he swallows the lump in his throat. “I failed most of my midterms, I forgot some of my assignments and didn’t turn in two of my essays, so I got shouted at and called to the Headmistress’ office.”

  There’s a pause, Phil’s eyes urge him to continue.

“I guess I kinda brought this upon myself,” Adrian admits. “I could have done a better job, could have tried harder. Writing essays and turning them in isn’t so hard, you know? I could have done well on my exams merely by giving my notes a quick glance, but I couldn’t be bothered. I tried to hide test answers on my pencil case and got caught, so mum gave me hell for it.”

  Dan swallows, reaches for Phil’s hand. He doesn’t like this, seeing his brother so hopeless.

“I could have done a better job, I know I can start doing a better job if I just put a little more effort into everything. But I just don’t want to. Fuck school and fuck the educational system, I’m fucking tired. I want to quit.”

“I’ve been there,” Phil admits, soothing voice washing over Adrian like a wave. “I… I can’t quite remember what I did back then, but I’ve been there, too.”

“Have you considered taking a year out?” Dan asks, voice tight. “That helped me, maybe our parents wouldn’t be too pleased, but finding a job or taking time to yourself could maybe give you inspiration.”

“Would it be worth it?” Adrian asks, blinking away the tears. “I’ve been feeling down for a long time without a valid reason.”

  Dan hesitates.

“Take a weekend away,” Phil pleads, squeezing Dan’s hand on the couch. “Come stay with us, I’ll get you a train ticket. Pack your stuff and forget about school for a few days, let us take you to fancy ass restaurants and hole-in-the-wall kind of places for a few days, please.”

  Dan smiles, looks fondly at his boyfriend for a few seconds before turning back to his brother.

“When I was about you age I took a week away from home and went to Phil’s place on Manchester, remember?” Dan says, smiling wide. “It helped me, a lot. Come, give yourself a break.”

  Adrian hesitates, reaches for a mini calendar inside his wallet.

“I have a long weekend in two weeks,” he says, casually, even though he’s feeling quite anxious about the whole ordeal. “Would you be willing to take me in for four days?”

  Dan smiles, nods furiously.

“Hell yeah.”

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so I was really nervous about publishing this one. Mainly because it includes Dan's family, but that's what this series is all about: Dan and Phil's family and my take on how they get along. I repeat, this is purely a work of fiction, and I do not mean to invade anyone's privacy by putting this up.  
> Despite following Dan and Phil since early 2011, I joined the Phandom as a community a few years ago (late November 2014, if I remember correctly) and most of the things that had happened at the time were slowly but surely disappearing. Nevertheless, I understand this is still a delicate topic, but I would like for you to take this work as it is, not as it could be, and tell me your sincere thoughts. 
> 
> You can come say hi to me on Tumblr — valery-snowflakes :D


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